The heavyweight fighter submitted Hyun Man Myung with an opening round, arm-triangle-choke, to advance to the open-weight tourney’s, second round.

After the bout, the promotion confirmed that “Cro Cop” will face Wanderlei Silva for a third time, December 29th. The two fought to a draw back in 2002, but in their 2006 rematch, “Cro Cop” KO’d Silva with a headkick.

TOKYO – July 16, 2016 – RIZIN FF, the combat sports federation headed by former PRIDE Fighting Championships boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara, announced at a press conference today that all-time great Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (MMA: 31-11-1, 1 NC; Kickboxing: 23-8, 12 KO’s) will come out of retirement and return to Japan, where his legendary career was born, to compete in the highly-anticipated, 16-man, open weight “Grand Prix” tournament that begins in Tokyo on Sunday, Sept. 25.

A former PRIDE and K-1 Grand Prix tournament champion, Filipovic earned his place as one of the greatest martial arts combatants in history with an elite set of striking skills that helped him earn the most first round finishes as well as the most head kick knockouts in PRIDE history.

It was also announced today that 4 of the 16 Grand Prix participants, including superstar Wanderlei Silva (35-12-1, 1 NC) of Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, will receive a bye in the first stage, and automatically advance to the tournament’s second, or quarterfinal stage, which will take place at a location to be announced on Thursday, Dec. 29.

Joining Sakakibara, Filipovic and Silva at the press conference were veteran warhorse Kazuyiki Fujita (15-11) of Funabashi, Chiba, Japan and former sumo wrestling champion turned MMA upstart Baruto Kaito (1-0) of Estonia, both of whom have been tabbed for battle in the first stage of the tournament.

Cruickshank of Wayne, Mich. is a 13-fight veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) who made a successful RIZIN FF debut on April 17, scoring a first round (4:36) TKO with a series of kicks on a downed Shinji Sasaki.

A longtime kickboxing icon, Souwer of Den Bosch, Netherlands, is a two-time winner of the K-1 World Max tournament and a four-time Shootboxing world champion. On December 31, 2015, he made his long-awaited MMA rules debut at the inaugural RIZIN FF event in Saitama, Japan, decimating Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima by way of first round (5:29) KO with an onslaught of punches.

Garcia of Porto Alege, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil made quick work of both of her MMA opponents to date, scoring a first round (2:36) TKO (punches) in her professional debut on Lei’d Tapa at the RIZIN FF promotional kick-off event on December 31, and submitting Anna Malyukova with an armbar in the second round (2:04) of battle at the RIZIN FF affair on April 17.

Just 22 years of age, Murata made her professional MMA debut under the promotion of RIZIN FF on April 17, notching a unanimous decision over Natalia Denisova, and has since already competed twice more, defeating Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson via third round (3:43) TKO (punches) and Ilona Wijmans by way of first round (1:17) TKO (punches), on June 4 and July 7, respectively.

Kizaemon Saiga (2-1) of Sakai, Osaka, Japan will take on fellow upstart Asen Yamamoto at a weight to be determined.

Women’s shoot boxing champion and unbeaten MMA competitor Rena Kubota(1-0) of Osaka, Japan will make her second start under MMA rules against an opponent to be announced.

It looks like another of the MMA greats is hanging up the gloves, as according to post on Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s website, the heavyweight has decided to retire.

The 41 year-old legend is scheduled to fight Anthony Hamilton at UFC FN 79 on November 21st. According to a post at Mirko Filipovic.com, however, the Croatian has withdraw from the event due to a shoulder injury. Filipovic also reported the injury on Facebook, and in the translated version that is posted on his personal website, “Cro Cop” relayed the following:

Dear friends, unfortunately I had to cancel the fight in Seoul. In the beginning of the preparation I already hurt my shoulder, so I couldn’t raise a hand. I tried to save a shoulder injury and repair in all possible ways: daily therapy, injections of blood plasma and various cocktails of drugs but didn’t work out. The only cure would be a break of two to three weeks, and that I could not afford in the midst of final preparations. By daily trainings the injury gets worse. Part of the muscle is snapped, the shoulder is filled with a lot of fluids, and the great danger is that tendon ruptures and then go to operation again….

People of course see only one side of the medal, material things, and for the passion, pain, blood and tears no one asks or cares, but it is so in life. Now it’s two in the morning, and I can not fall asleep, I tinkling thoughts and swirling my career in front of my eyes. I am aware that I have come to the end of my martial times, but training with pain I want no longer. My body is battered by countless trainings, I collected nine operations, the body has become prone to injury, after each workout I put ice on my knee operated on because it’s filled with fluid, therapies twice a week. The next fight would be 80th professional and that is a lot, especially in the competition: K-1, Pride, IGF, UFC. The biggest problem will be my adaptation to “civilian life”, without two workouts a day and the eternal journey around the world, and that whouldn’t fall so hard. I will train as long as I live because it’s my life, but not at this rate and I’m glad in some way.

Filipovic has announced he was finished with MMA competition in the past, but ultimately elected to continue fighting, and returned to the UFC this past April. At UFC FN 64 the vaunted striker scored a thrilling, come-from-behind stoppage win over Gabriel Gonzaga.

The former PRIDE Grand Prix champion put together a record of 31-11-2 in MMA competition.

The UFC has yet to make any announcement regarding “Cro Cop’s” reported withdrawal and retirement.

“Cro Cop” fell behind in his main event bout with Gabriel Gonzaga, but in round three, he put away the accomplished heavyweight with a vicious series of elbows. After the event the promotion announced that “Cro Cop” and Gonzaga had earned “Fight of the Night” honors, and an extra $50,000.

The “Performance of the Night” bonuses went to Leon Edwards and Maryna Moroz. Edwards floored Seth Baczynski in just eight seconds, while Moroz tapped out Joanne Calderwood with a nicely executed armbar.

Stipe Miocic headed to Croatia to help Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic prepare for his upcoming, April 11th return to the UFC, and the heavyweight has posted several pictures of the two.

“Cro Cop” is booked to fight Gabriel Gonzaga at the UFC’s debut card in Krakow, Poland, which will mark the first time the Croatian star has fought in the Octagon since 2011. Filipovic and Gonzaga fought once before in 2007, and the latter won the bout via knockout.

Miocic, who is of Croatian descent, is set to face Mark Hunt on May 10th at at UFC Fight Night card in Adelaide, Australia. The Ohio fighter is coming off a decision loss to Junior dos Santos in December, which snapped Miocic’s three fight winning streak.

There’s been no shortage of verbal jabs between Mirko “Cro Cop’s” camp and Jarrell Miller, as the two prepare to rematch at GLORY 17, and that trend continued at the event’s pre-fight presser.

“Cro Cop” decisioned Miller at a K-1 event last March, and the latter has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the defeat since. Here is some of what the noted strikers had to say about tonight’s bout, which will headline the even’t SPIKE broadcast.

Mirko Cro Cop

“Everyone has their own style. I don’t like it personally, but if that is how he feels like promoting himself to the media, that is up to him. But personally I don’t like it.”

“I don’t care. Talk is talk and a fight is a fight. If it makes him relaxed, then good for him. I don’t care. No big deal.”

“The strategy will be to kick his ass. I will use my kicks much more than in the previous fight… [to Miller: Don’t interrupt me please!] so we will see what happens in two days. Either you see me knock him out or you see him take care of me. We will see.”

Jarrell Miller

“I talked smack, he didn’t like it, I fought him in his country, they jerked me around. So I’m gonna talk smack, fight him in my country, beat him again and get the right outcome.”

“I’m not playing no games. I didn’t come here all the way from New York to LA just to talk smack and not do my job. I’m gonna do what I do best and that’s kick ass. If you don’t like smack-talk, so what? That’s part of the sport. This is a business. And I back up what I say. Coco-Cop is going down. Look out for it, it’s coming.”

GLORY will hold its latest event in Inglewood, California, Saturday night, and the card will feature a middleweight tourney, a featherweight tourney, a heavyweight title fight, a welterweight title fight, and Mirko “Cro Cop” taking on Jarrell… Read More

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Ghita (photo credit: Ed Diller / GLORY)

By FCF Staff

GLORY will hold its latest event in Inglewood, California, Saturday night, and the card will feature a middleweight tourney, a featherweight tourney, a heavyweight title fight, a welterweight title fight, and Mirko “Cro Cop” taking on Jarrell Miller.

Here are the official weigh-in results for the event. GLORY 17 will be shown on SPIKE, and “Last Man Standing” will be available via online pay-per-view.